Roses in the Summer
by Mirune Keishiko
Summary: Married bliss? Sano and Megumi? You must be joking. A very quick glimpse of wedlock between the rooster and the fox, three years after the events of Yoake Mae no Yami ni.


A/N (Part One). This is a sort of tiny little parodyish sequel to my SanoxMegumi story, "Yoake Mae no Yami ni" ("In the Darkness Before the Dawn"). You might want to read it first koffplugkoff. But if you want to go on ahead without knowing that story, suffice it to say that Sano came back to Japan, he married Megumi and they had an adorable little girl named Nozomi, and now Kenji and his girlfriend from the OAV Chizuru have adopted a sort-of-custom of staying with them in Aizu on occasion. Zat's it. Yay! (I'd put smileys, but ffnet keeps taking them out. Arrgh!)  
.  
.  
Disclaimer: Disclaim, disclaim.  
.

* * *

.  
.  
Roses in the Summer  
by Mirune Keishiko  
.  
.  
.  
(A clear sunny day. Birds fly happily across the sky. In the fast-growing old town of Aizu-Wakamatsu, busy market lanes bustling with merchants and shoppers eventually give way to more peaceful, grass-lined paths, with farms spreading out on either side to the horizon.)

(Little children are resting on the bank of a stream, trying in vain to whistle on bamboo leaves. Some way upstream is a large stone house, surrounded by green fields.)

(His hair getting grizzly, Sagara Sanosuke stands leaning on his spade in one field, looking contemplative as he chews on a blade of grass. Closeup of Sano.)

Sano (still looking thoughtful, gaze faraway): Guess I'm still something of a farmer's boy after all... Some years back I got the idea to put up this kinda place. Feels good to see these green living things growing, at my own big clumsy hands. My old man would be proud of me... He'd try to kick my ass all over this field.

(Grinning, he squeezes a vexed-looking Megumi, who is probably looking vexed because she just materialized out of nowhere to have his arm around her shoulders.)

Sano: What a life, eh? Nice little house, nice little turnip farm, nice cute little kiddies, (leering) nice little wifey... (Megumi punches him.)

Megumi (sweetly, as Sano flies off into the sky): _Darling_, your turnips have all dried up. Best just rake them over and start again before the fall comes. That would be the third failed crop this year, ne...?

Sano (SD swirly-eyed, smiling, crumpled on the ground with leaves and twigs in his hair): She called me _darling_...

Megumi (walking away): And I don't want you within twenty paces of my herb garden, you hear me?

Kenji (sweatdrop): This is kind of sad...

Chizuru (sweatdrop, smiling weakly): Cute, they're still too cute at their age...

Baby Nozomi (sweatdrop, thinking): _So embarrassing_.

(Sano is singing loudly and cheerily as he scatters some seeds across the newly plowed-over land. A handmade sign stuck in the dirt has a crude drawing of a tomato on it.)

(His loud singing echoes to Megumi, who smiles to herself as she works quietly among the flowers in her hedge-enclosed garden. At the gate there is also a sign: Roosters Keep Out.)

(Kenji and Chizuru are out for a loverly walk in the woods, with chibi-Nozomi in Chizuru's arms. The sun shines brightly through the canopy of leaves.)

1896. The twenty-ninth year of Meiji.

The story will yet be told.  
.  
.

.  
.  
_owari_  
.

* * *

A/N (Part Two). Just a bit of randomness, born out of some crazy idea one sleepless night. I suppose by now you realize exactly why I never really even try to write a humor story. sigh!

I've been obsessing about continuing my other story, MnM, the past few weeks but have had producted next to nothing, other than entirely too many notes and too little actual story. I dug this little thing up from my ancient files, dusted it off and polished it up a bit, for mainly selfish reasons: in the hopes that it will rev up my old RK-writing engines. Gomen nasai, minna-dono!

The title is shamelessly ripped off Watsuki-sama's title for the RK series "epilogue," "Haru ni Sakura" or "Cherry Blossoms in the Spring".

This unworthy one hopes it pleased on some sort of level, at least. The ending is for us fans as well as the story, of course... Let's keep writing and reading RK for as long as we live!

I don't think I have any real right to ask for reviews, delinquent as I've been... but some nice words of encouragement might just do the trick, heheheh. (insert smiley here, darnit)


End file.
